Eyewitness Account of Paul Angelides
Paul J. Angelides
July 12, 1998
Re: Flight 800
After work on July 17, 1996, I went to our ocean front summer rental
house to have dinner with my wife and 1 year old son. After dinner my wife
was bathing our son before putting him to bed so I decided to go to the
ocean side deck to enjoy the view. As I walked through the sliding doors
to the deck a red phosphorescent object in the sky caught my attention.
The object was quite high in the sky (about 50-60 degrees) and was slightly
to the west and off shore of my position. At first it appeared to be moving
slowly, almost hanging and descending, and was leaving a white smoke trail.
The smoke trail was short and the top of the smoke trail has a clockwise,
parabolic shaped hook towards the shore. My first reaction was that I was
looking at a marine distress flare which had been fired from a boat. I
said to myself, someone must be in trouble.
I quickly realized that the object was too large and then began moving
too fast to be a distress flare. I followed the object as it moved out
over the ocean in the direction of the horizon. I lost sight of the object,
as it was about 10 degrees above the horizon. In the same area of the sky
out over the ocean, I then saw a series of flashes, one in the sky and
another closer to the horizon. I remember straining to see what was happening
as there seemed to be a lot of chaos out there. There was a dot on the
horizon near the action, which I perceived as a boat. The flashes were
then followed by a huge fireball, which dropped very quickly into the sea.
I yelled to my wife. Come here quickly you've got to see this.
My first reaction was that I had seen a military exercise that went
awry. Then the sounds started. There was a very loud and prolonged boom,
which reminded me of thunder rolling above the house. The noise continued
and concluded with a series of two distinctly louder bursts and a final
extremely loud burst. The sounds shook the house. My wife who was on the
bathroom floor drying our son from his bath felt the floor shaking as she
heard the noise and I heard her cry out "what is going on?". After some
silence there were two more extremely loud explosion like bursts of sound
which also shook the house. I thought to myself that I had witnessed some
big weapons being used.
I noticed several smoke patterns, which remained in the sky after the
action took place. In the area where I lost sight of the object there was
a long, wide, white cigar shaped cloud, which extended parallel to the
horizon and eastward to the point where I had seen the huge fireball erupt.
At the eastern end of the white cloud was a wide black smoke trail, which
followed the same path as the fireball, which had dropped to the horizon.
The path of the black smoke left a trail that was slightly to the east
of a vertical drop. There was also a thin white, parabolic contrail, which
extended upward and westward from the white cigar shaped cloud.
I called 911 and told the operator that I had just witnessed an explosion
and crash, which had occurred off shore. The operator asked me for my location,
which I provided to her. The operator said she would send someone right
over. I told her that the explosion was off shore and not at my location.
I then called the Moriches Coast Guard Station. I stated that I had
seen an explosion off shore. I was told, "oh, that's the Air National Guard
they are firing flares tonight". I told the Coast Guard Operator that what
I had seen was no flare and that I had witnessed a major explosion. I then
returned to the beach to see if anything else was going on. The dot on
the horizon, which I thought was a ship, had disappeared. I could see flames
beginning to appear above the horizon in the area where the fireball had
dropped. I saw lights from aircraft and boats heading towards the scene.
As I thought about what I had seen and what the Coast Guard had just told
me, I felt that I had witnessed an aircraft explode during a military exercise.
I began to feel morose, as the explosion was so violent certainly the Air
National Guard crew could not have survived.
I began flipping TV news channels. At about 9:15 I got a CNN report
that a Boeing 747 was missing……
I followed the event in the newspapers and on TV and radio news. I called
the FBI hotline number and a few days later was interviewed by three FBI
representatives at my home in Laurel Hollow, N.Y., which is about 50 miles
from Westhampton. I told the FBI my observations. I gave the FBI a sketch
with a sequence of the events, which I had recalled at the time. I told
the FBI that I had drawn no conclusions from my observations and that I
was confident that the investigators would find the cause of the disaster.
I was asked, "what was your first impression?" and I replied "I thought
it was a military exercise and someone shot themselves in the foot". I
was asked if I had ever seen a missile before and I replied no. I was asked
if I was ever in the military and replied no. During the FBI interview,
I noticed they had a questionnaire with an item which read, "when did you
first see the missile?". At the conclusion of the interview one of the
FBI representatives told me not to talk to too many people about what I
had seen since, "someone could say you said this and someone could say
you said that".
I followed the news coverage of the event during the months that followed
and I became increasingly concerned that the investigation was off the
mark. In hindsight I realized that the delayed long rolling thunder sound
which I heard probably corresponded to the object traversing the sky. The
first two bursts corresponded to the two white flashes, the third loud
burst corresponded with the fireball. After the silence, the last two sound
bursts would likely correspond with the aircraft hitting the water. In
early 1997 I called the FBI stating that I wanted to tell my observations
again and that I felt what I had seen was very important to their investigation.
I was disappointed by what seemed to be their lack of interest.
My friends and family have told me that I should not be persistent with
the FBI since they are afraid that the Government would reprise against
me.
Months later I saw the CIA video reenactment on various TV newscasts.
It does not correlate in any way with my observations, especially with
regard to the descending fireball of the aircraft, which is shown in the
video from the perspective of an observer on shore. Nor is there any explanation
of the characteristic location and movement of "the object" I saw traversing
the sky. The FBI has explained eyewitness sighting of a "flare" as the
body of the aircraft as it ascended, (prior to exploding) after the nose
section fell off. I strongly disagree. My observations tell me that the
aircraft was not just flying along and then suddenly blew up as the center
fuel tank exploded. The large fireball, which would have occurred from
a fuel explosion in the sky, was a later event in the sequence of my observations.
The red, phosphorescent object which first attracted my attention traveled
a great distance and at great speed to the area of flight 800's demise.
The object originated in a vastly different sector of the sky than the
Flight 800 path. The object traveled in a generally north-south direction
whereas Flight 800 traveled west-east. The official explanations do not
address the flashes of light I observed prior to the fireball and long
rolling sonic boom, which ended with 2 small burst and one large burst,
followed by silence and then two additional loud bursts. The video does
not explain the long white cigar shaped cloud, which was left in the sky.
I have been disappointed with the results of the investigation so far.
The official explanations of the disaster are vastly inconsistent with
my observations. Considering the resources at the disposal of the investigators
and the extent of the investigation, which has been performed over the
past two years, I do not believe that the cause of the disaster remains
unknown.
At the time of the incident I was 48 years old. I received a BS degree
in Mechanical Engineering in 1971, I received New York State licensure
as a Professional Engineer in 1997. I am self employed full time as a Consulting
Engineer and I have been qualified as an expert witness before courts in
Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Bronx counties. I am a small business owner
/ sole practitioner and the breadwinner for my family. I watched the negative
official and press reaction to the reports by Mr. Salinger which more accurately
describe my observations. I have reasoned that if Mr. Salinger, who is
a former prestigious government official, could be treated so poorly, what
is in store for me if I speak out. I am concerned for my security and fear
Government reprisal against me for what I have seen.
Paul J. Angelides
7/12/98
